Time in Hungary now

Time zone in Hungary

Hungary uses a single time zone: Central European Standard Time (CET, UTC+1) in winter and Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+2) in summer. Every clock in the country shows the same time.

Budapest lies at 19.0° east, where mean solar time is UTC+1:16 (four minutes per degree of longitude). Standard time runs 16 min behind the sun, so on average the sun is highest at about 11:44 AM in winter, and mornings get light early.

Daylight saving time in Hungary

Yes. Hungary moves its clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday of March at 2:00 AM and back on the last Sunday of October at 3:00 AM (local time).

The dates come from EU Directive 2000/84/EC, which makes every member state change at the same instant, 1:00 a.m. GMT. The plan to end the changes has been stalled in the Council since 2019; the daylight saving time page explains it.

All coming change dates are on the Europe/Budapest page.

Clock history of Hungary

The record begins with local mean time (clocks set by the sun, UTC+1:16 in Budapest), which ended on October 31, 1890, when CET (UTC+1) replaced it. Between 1970 and 2024, a daylight saving period began in 45 of the 55 years. The first summer time in the record dates from 1916. The table summarises the clocks of Hungary year by year since 1970, from the tzdata entry Europe/Budapest.

Rows from 2027 on follow the rules in tzdata 2026f; a government decision would change them in the next release.

Convert Hungary time

Time difference between Hungary and major cities

• In 2027, Hungary is 5 h ahead of New York from March 14 to March 27 and from October 31 to November 6, instead of 6 h ahead of New York as during the rest of the year, because the two places change their clocks on different dates.
• In 2027, Hungary is 8 h ahead of Los Angeles from March 14 to March 27 and from October 31 to November 6, instead of 9 h ahead of Los Angeles as during the rest of the year, because the two places change their clocks on different dates.
• In 2027, Hungary is 9 h behind Sydney from March 28 to April 3 and from October 3 to October 30: the weeks between the two seasons, when one place has changed its clocks and the other has not yet.

Office hours and calls

With JavaScript on, this line shows how Hungary’s office hours overlap yours today.

A 9-to-5 day in Hungary overlaps New York’s for 2 h in January (3:00 PM–5:00 PM Hungary time) and the same in July. At 9:00 AM in Hungary it is 3:00 AM in New York.

A 9-to-5 day in Hungary overlaps London’s for 7 h in January (10:00 AM–5:00 PM Hungary time) and the same in July. At 9:00 AM in Hungary it is 8:00 AM in London.

A 9-to-5 day in Hungary overlaps New Delhi’s for 3 h 30 min in January (9:00 AM–12:30 PM Hungary time), 4 h 30 min in July. At 9:00 AM in Hungary it is 1:30 PM in New Delhi.

Neighbouring time zones

The nearest large cities on a different clock, with the straight-line distance from Budapest and the difference now.

Same clock as Hungary

These places keep exactly the same time as Hungary all year under the current rules (zones Africa/Ceuta, Europe/Andorra, Europe/Belgrade, Europe/Berlin, Europe/Brussels and 10 more).

• BerlinDE
• MadridES
• RomeIT
• ParisFR
• HamburgDE
• BudapestHU
• WarsawPL
• ViennaAT
• BarcelonaES
• StockholmSE
• MunichDE
• MilanIT

Cities in Hungary

• Budapest
• Pest

Hungary at a glance

• CapitalBudapest
• Population9,514,251
• Time zone IDEurope/Budapest
• Standard timeCET (UTC+1)
• Daylight saving timeCEST (UTC+2)
• Calling code+36

More time zones

• What time is it?
• World clock
• Europe/Budapest time zone
• CET time
• CEST time
• Daylight saving time
• Time zones of the world
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• Time zone converter